Next to a CNN news story about how The Rapture is predicted to occur this Saturday reader Ed noticed a little ad for Allstate insurance. (According to some beliefs, The Rapture is when Jesus returns to the Earth and pulls up all the chosen in the air to meet him and get whisked away to heaven. Then some really bad stuff happens down here.) The copy reads, “When it happens, you’re in good hands.” While no doubt the placement is accidental, and part of the effect comes from the intentionally vague and all-encompassing tagline, one does start to wonder how Allstate insurance could help out during the End of Days… [More]

Pick any Roland Emmerich disaster movie and randomly select a scene–that’s more or less what Robert Prechter, a market forecaster who was widely lauded as a technical analyst in the 1980s, says is coming to the Dow, writes the New York Times. [More]